I know, I'm moving slow in my re-read, but I'm really trying to catch stuff as I go, because much of this feels like it resonates with the end of the books.

Anyway - I was reading in Chapter 33 and Rand's fever dreams seem like they might be more meaningful than some paranoia.

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Egwene stepped out of the shadows, her hair in a long, dark braid as it had been in Emond's Field, her face pained and mournful. "Why did you leave us?" she asked. "We're dead because you left us." [...] "We're all dead," she said sadly, "and death is the kingdom of the Dark One. The Dark One has us, because you abandoned us."

While I know it is easy to pin this the recent split and his feelings of responsibility towards Egwene, I wonder how much this will hit home with the FoM moment. How much will Rand "abandon" this core group and how many of his friends will die because of decisions Rand makes at the FoM.

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Moiraine's expression was serene, but her face was bloodless and pale. Her cloak might as well have been a shroud, and her voice was a lash. "That is right, Rand al'Thor. You have no choice. You must go to Tar Valon, or the Dark One will take you for his own. Eternity chained in the Shadow. Only Aes Sedai can save you, now. Only Aes Sedai."

I like how this speaks to Moiraine's "death" and also resonates with what the Finns did to her (bloodless and pale face). While Rand seems to have made it clear of the White Tower, this makes me wonder how true the statement will be "Only Aes Sedai can save you now"...or not, but just fun to wonder how meaningful some of these passages could be.

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Thom grinned at him sardonically. The gleeman's clothes hung in charred rags that made him see the flashes of light as Thom wrestled with the Fade to give them time to run. The flesh under the rags was blackened and burned. "Trust Aes Sedai, boy, and you'll wish you were dead. Remember, the price of Aes Sedai help is always smaller than you can believe, always greater than you can imagine. And what Ajah will find you first, eh? Red? Maybe Black. Best to run, boy. Run."

I like how this speaks to the Black Ajah and Rand being hunted. Thom's death in this seems to be a direct connection to Rand's fears, so I'm doubting we see Thom die.

Lan's stare was as hard as granite, and blood covered his face. "Strange to see a heron-mark blade in the hands of a sheepherder. Are you worthy of it? You had better be. You're alone, now. Nothing to hold to behind you, and nothing before, and anyone can be a Darkfriend." He smiled a wolf's smile, and blood poured out of his mouth. "Anyone."

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Perrin came, accusing, pleading for help.

We see that in a way in the mock fight they had.

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Mistress al'Vere, weeping for her daughter, and Bayle Domon, cursing him for bringing Fades down on his vessel, and Master Fitch, wringing his hands over the ashes of his inn, and Min, screaming in a Trolloc's clutches, people he knew, people he had only met.

And I love the Min in a Trolloc's clutches in this one...really wonder if that will turn out to be a nice foreshadowing.

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But the worst was Tam. Tam stood over him, frowning and shaking his head, and said not a word.

This would seem to have occurred in TGS.

Anyway - it wouldn't be Theoryland if I didn't read way too much into this stuff, but the Egwene and Min lines really make me wonder if some of this stuff regarding Egwene and Min is what RJ had in mind for the end, from the very beginning.

The chills came once more, and then the fever, to be replaced by the chills, and the fever again. Mat covered him when he shook, and fed him water when he complained of thirst. The night deepened, and the stable shifted in the flickering lantern light. Shadows took shape and moved on their own. Then he saw Ba’alzamon striding down the stable, eyes burning, a Myrddraal at either side with faces hidden in the depths of their black cowls.

Fingers scrabbling for his sword hilt, he tried to get to his feet, yelling, “Mat! Mat, they’re here! Light, they’re here!”

Mat jerked awake where he sat cross-legged against the wall. “What? Darkfriends? Where?”

Wavering on his knees, Rand pointed frantically down the stable . . . and gaped. Shadows stirred, and a horse stamped in its sleep. Nothing more. He fell back on the straw.

“There’s nobody but us,” Mat said.

It essence, Rand's Taint created Myrddraal illusions which Mat doesn't see at all, gives readers a clue that Rand has not yet gained the Dark One's protection from the Taint Sickness. Chosen aren't subject to Taint Sickness. Nynaeve in ToM, Ch.15 delving & healing Naeff viewed it as a type of compulsion.

The sickness Rand al'Thor expresses in later books, LoC to ToM, is far different in symptoms than his earlier Taint induced sickness (tEotW).

Rand's later sickness is more similar to an damane attempting to channel independently with an a'dam collar around one's neck (TGH). Also this later sickness of Rand's is similar to what Moghedien would feel if she channels too close to cour’souvra--that's Moridin in Moghedien's case (ACoS). Rand had a similar feeling at Shadar Logoth (LoC), before he crossed balefire streams with Moridin (ACoS).

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Even in the Void he felt dizzy from those reverberations, as though the world swung beneath his feet in time to them; they made him want to vomit up everything he had ever eaten. Still, he persevered.

Curiously, Rand seems to be on the receiving end of two unique effects from his later sickness, in this scene:

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The taint on saidin felt especially heavy today, a thick foul oil that oozed into his pores and stained his bones deep. Stained his soul. He had thought himself accustomed to the vileness, after a fashion, yet today it was nauseating, stronger than the frozen fire and molten cold of saidin itself. He held on to the Source as often as possible now, accepting the vileness to avoid the new sickness of seizing it. It could be deadly, if he let sickness distract him from that struggle. Maybe it was connected to the dizzy spells, somehow.

Every time the Myrddraal visited, it displayed her mindtrap. Channeling too near your own cour’souvra was extremely painful, the nearer, the more the pain; this close, she did not think she would survive a simple touch on the Source. And that was the least of the mindtrap’s dangers.

A Crown of Swords, Chapter 25 "Mindtrap" -- Moghedien point of view

Rand's early sickness is more in line with Naeff's and Fedwin Morr's. However, Rand's later sickness is something else entirely different.

Lan's stare was as hard as granite, and blood covered his face. "Strange to see a heron-mark blade in the hands of a sheepherder. Are you worthy of it?

A bit irony there, considering just a few paragraphs before Matrim Cauthon attempts to take up Rand's heron-mark blade.

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“There’s nobody but us,” Mat said. “Here, let me take that.” He reached for Rand’s sword belt, but Rand tightened his grip on the hilt.

Is the 'Sword of Justice' a heron-mark blade, I wonder?

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Originally Posted by Tamyrlin

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Mistress al'Vere, weeping for her daughter, and Bayle Domon, cursing him for bringing Fades down on his vessel, and Master Fitch, wringing his hands over the ashes of his inn, and Min, screaming in a Trolloc's clutches, people he knew, people he had only met.

And I love the Min in a Trolloc's clutches in this one...really wonder if that will turn out to be a nice foreshadowing.

I'd love to know what Min is cry for... fear at losing Rand? Perhaps an obvious everyday stereotype fear of Trollocs eating her for dinner? Or something else entirely?

Why can't Trollocs fight for Mierin and the Light's side? Mierin once left Min alone to protect Rand al'Thor, might she return the favorite of protecting Min from danger with group of loyal Trollocs beholden to Mierin?

If a Dragon's Fang can become a symbol for hope (Min)... think what that can mean for Trollocs in the future.